Negro Baseball History Fact

Last Friday May 1, Alex Rodriguez hit his 660 career home run to tie Willie Mays as the fourth leading Major League All-time Home Run hitter. Before having an illustrious 22 year Hall of Fame career in Major League baseball which began in 1951, Mays played Negro League baseball.

Willie Howard Mays, Jr. was born on May 6 in Westfield, Alabama; 1931. As a 17 year old teenager, Mays played for the Birmingham Black Barons. He was the center fielder on the Black Barons’ 1948 Negro American League pennant winning team. In the last Negro League World Series, the Black Barons lost to the Homestead Grays that year four games to one.

After playing for the Barons in 1949, Willie Mays was signed as an amateur free agent by the New York Giants in 1950. After Willie Mays, which former Negro League player is next on the Major League All-time Home Run list?